European Commission recognises importance of Slovak hydrogen project

The Slovak natural gas company Nafta has had success in the European Hy2Tech challenge with its H2I-S&D project, which deals with research on the impact of hydrogen on gas infrastructure. The project was the first from Slovakia to be approved by the European Commission as an Important Project of Common European Interest (or IPCEI) in the field of hydrogen technologies, Nafta reported on Tuesday. The aim of the project, according to company spokeswoman Martina Štecová, is to identify a suitable deposit for storing hydrogen in a mixture with natural gas and to determine the maximum possible concentration in which it could be stored in a porous type of deposit. A total of 41 projects from 35 companies were included in the European IPCEI call, for which the European Commission approved state aid in the amount of €5.4 billion. These funds will be released from the national resources of 15 member states, with another €8.8 billion coming from private investments.